For George Bush, One Last Funeral, and Then a 70-Mile Train Ride

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A second funeral was held for former President George Bush in Texas. Later, his casket was placed on a train and taken to the grounds of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, to be buried.CreditCreditTamir Kalifa for The New York Times

HOUSTON — In a more intimate and Texas-tinged gathering, at the same church where his wife of 73 years was eulogized just seven months ago, former President George Bush was remembered Thursday morning for his humility, decency and devotion to his family and his country.

Nearly 1,000 relatives, friends and dignitaries from the worlds of politics, sports, business and entertainment filled St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, as they had in April for the funeral for Barbara Bush, who was 92 when she died. The funeral on Thursday for Mr. Bush, who died last week at the age of 94, was one of the final events in what has become an extraordinary moment of national mourning for the 41st president.

Eight of his grandsons led the military pallbearers who carried Mr. Bush’s coffin into the church, and later his eldest grandson — George P. Bush, the Texas land commissioner — spoke in a touching eulogy of his grandfather’s horseshoe games with the family and the Secret Service, and of how it had been “the honor of a lifetime to share his name.” Mr. Bush’s friends and relatives described a man who walked softly through the postwar pages of American history, who was defined by service to others and who, one cold day in Houston, gave a young coatless usher at St. Martin’s the coat off his back.

“His wish for a kinder, gentler nation was not a cynical political slogan: It came honest and unguarded from his soul,” James A. Baker III, Mr. Bush’s longtime friend of more than 60 years, said in a eulogy.

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Former President George W. Bush looks on at the casket of his father.CreditTamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Mr. Baker — who also served as secretary of state and White House chief of staff in the Bush administration and ran both of his presidential campaigns — fought back tears at the end of his remarks, as he called Mr. Bush his role model and described their spirited debates, which usually ended amicably and humorously.

“But he had a very effective way of letting me know when the discussion was over,” Mr. Baker said. “He would look at me and he would say, ‘Baker, if you’re so smart, why am I the president and you’re not?’”

After the funeral, Mr. Bush’s coffin traveled by train to College Station, Tex., where the former president was to be buried on the grounds of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University — next to Mrs. Bush and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia in 1953 when she was 3 years old.

On Wednesday, President Trump sat at the front of Washington National Cathedral with all four living former presidents at Mr. Bush’s state funeral, joined by thousands of foreign leaders, lawmakers, diplomats and other officials. In Houston, it was a much smaller tribute, in large part for the Bush family and their friends and supporters in Texas, at the church Mr. and Mrs. Bush had attended for more than 50 years. Mr. Trump did not attend, nor did any other former presidents except for Mr. Bush’s son, George W. Bush.

Amid the pageantry and prayers, and the anthems sung by St. Martin’s choir, there was a distinct country twang to the ceremony, an homage to the adopted state of the Connecticut-raised former president. The Oak Ridge Boys, a country group that first sang for Mr. Bush in 1983 when he was vice president, sang “Amazing Grace” a cappella. Reba McEntire sang “The Lord’s Prayer.” Numerous Texas figures filled the pews. There were actors (Chuck Norris), baseball Hall of Famers (Nolan Ryan) and business leaders (Tilman Fertitta). There were current and retired football, basketball and baseball stars, including J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans, Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros and Dikembe Mutombo and Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets.

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Former President George Bush was eulogized by his eldest son, former President George W. Bush, and the biographer Jon Meacham. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama also attended the funeral alongside President Trump at Washington National Cathedral.CreditCreditTom Brenner for The New York Times

Mr. Bush, a World War II aviator from the East Coast, came to Texas in the summer of 1948 to make a name for himself in the oil business, driving to the West Texas town of Odessa in a red two-door Studebaker. Seventy years after that trip, Mr. Bush’s funeral train took him on one last journey through the state, this time in a Union Pacific train. Named Union Pacific 4141, the train traveled 70 miles through Magnolia, Navasota and other small towns, led by a 4,300-horsepower locomotive painted blue, gray and white to echo the colors of Air Force One. Members of the Bush family were on board.

Arranged for a man who had been America’s oldest living ex-president, Mr. Bush’s locomotive procession gave his long-planned memorial services a throwback touch, evoking the presidential funeral trains for Abraham Lincoln in 1865, Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 and Dwight Eisenhower in 1969. The train ride from his Houston funeral to his College Station burial was his idea, organizers said.

At a brisk pace, the train passed through the heart of downtown Navasota, population 7,607, and it was like the Fourth of July on a cold and drizzly December afternoon. People stood by the tracks as the train’s horn blared, waving, taking pictures and holding aloft American flags. Children sat on their parents’ shoulders to get a better look, and downtown buildings were decorated with red-white-and-blue bunting and a sign reading “President George H.W. Bush/Thank you for a lifetime of service.”

Shortly after 3:30 p.m., the funeral train — the Union Pacific locomotive and several rail cars behind it — glided onto the Texas A&M campus, where several hundred spectators who had waited in the rain for hours cheered. Floor-to-ceiling windows in one of the rail cars allowed people on both sides to view the coffin inside.

As a university band played “Hail to the Chief” and the “Aggie War Hymn” — a special request by Mr. Bush, a devoted fan of all things Aggie, as A&M’s students and sports teams are known — the coffin was lowered from the train by an honor guard of pallbearers, carried past Bush family members and placed into a waiting hearse.

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The Union Pacific train carrying former President George H.W. Bush’s casket to College Station, Tex., where he was laid to rest.CreditTamir Kalifa for The New York Times

The Bush family and others then joined the motorcade that traveled slowly along George Bush Drive, turned off on Barbara Bush Drive and finally arrived at the presidential library. From there, the coffin was carried to the family plot, where the former president was laid to rest in a private burial.

Laura Durie, 24, a master’s student in international relations at the university’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, was one of the several hundred A&M students and other guests invited to the train arrival ceremony. “Obviously, 41 is the namesake of our school, and he really inspired a lot of us to go into public service,” Ms. Durie said. “He always said that public service is a noble calling.”

The train itself was unveiled in 2005. Mr. and Mrs. Bush toured it at an event held at Texas A&M, posing for pictures in which they peeked out of the window of the cab, above the side emblazoned with “4141.” Inside the cab, Union Pacific officials, including Mike Iden, then an engineering executive for the company, explained to Mr. Bush how the train operated.

“It was at that point that President Bush said, ‘Can I take this for a drive? Can I run it?’” Mr. Iden, now retired, recalled in a Union Pacific video. Mr. Bush, he said, climbed into the engineer’s seat and got a brief tutorial.

Then, for about two short miles, he took his funeral train out for a spin.

Correction:Dec. 6, 2018

A photo caption with an earlier version of this article misidentified the city where former President George Bush would be buried. It is College Station, Tex., not College Point.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Tinges of Texas and a Throwback Touch in a President’s Final Farewell. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe